Going on!

What an extraordinary time it has been! We’ve witnessed the death of the Queen and the unfolding of an ancient mourning tradition. All those people marching in uniforms, laying flowers, queuing to file past the Queen lying in state. The mixed reactions from people who have been oppressed by the monarchy and then, for many of us perhaps, the recognition that her journey, while recognised with far more grandeur than ours, was still a journey that we will all take. A reminder that in death we are all equal before our God – even a Queen. And that this Queen, for whom a world mourned, left a family who knew her as a mum, an aunt, a grannie, a friend. And then the ultimate sign that life goes on with the proclamation ‘God save the King’.  

A few days later we witnessed a particularly Australian ritual with the AFL grand final. More processions, music and then the game. Although we use the term ‘game’ a little loosely here – it has an almost gladiator like quality with these elite athletes fighting for the title of premiers. 

I grew up in a family with brothers, dad and a grandad who loved their footy. The arrival of the Brownlow and the finals period always evoke memories in me: watching the Brownlow in a hospital room with a very sick dad, watching many grand finals and then the replays with a grumbling mum in the kitchen who was over it by then! And, for all the grand finals I have watched over the years, my sympathy always rests with those who lose. Watching them slump to the ground when the final siren blows is unbearable. Sometimes, even when we have done everything to prepare, it is still not enough. 

We all go through times of loss, humiliation, and disappointment – but not many of us have hundreds of thousands of people as witnesses. Most of us carry our own private stories of disappointment through which we struggle while asking the universal question: Why?

Our biblical ancestors struggled with this question, and we can enter into their musings when we read the scriptures: the words of the psalmists, for example, remind us that this question about why people, and particularly why good people, suffer has been asked for generations. We witness this profoundly with last weekend’s first reading from the Prophet Habakkuk: “How long, O Lord? I cry for help but you do not listen!’ (1:2). We can resonate with this! How long before things turn around for me? How long before I am recognised for what I do? How long before the world rewards me for my good work?  And the Lord responds to Habakuk: do not give up, things have their time, life will go on. 

There are times in life when we feel stuck. These are the swamp times, an image Brené Brown uses to describe times of loss and embarrassment and tempting though it might be, we don’t set up camp there! We learn to wade through it. We might be reminded of the Israelites in the desert – they didn’t want to stay there permanently! They journeyed on with God at their side. And so it is with us, perhaps. None of us stay in the swamp or the desert for ever. Eventually the path clears and our spirits lift and we go on. 

And I can’t help but wonder whether this is the essential message of the paschal mystery: there is always life, there will always be little life deaths and there will always, always, be resurrection. Jesus taught us that, and sometimes just the knowledge of that is enough to lead us through our swamp. 

By Cathy Jenkins